Energetic Cleansing For Anyone

Do you ever feel just worn down?  Maybe it’s been a really stressful day, maybe you’ve been running around like your hair is on fire, chasing after kids or pets or errant employees.  Have you been sitting in a cubicle staring at a screen for hours on end?  It may be more than just physical or mental exertion wearing at you.

Is this how you feel at the end of the day?

As an energy worker and healer, I am especially sensitive to the emotional and energetic auras of the people surrounding me.  As a healthcare worker, and a natural empath, I feel an almost constant drag on my own energetic resources when I’m at my ‘day job’, and take extra steps to protect myself from being drained.  But by the end of the day, I usually find that I’m at a pretty low ebb, and it’s not entirely due to being on my feet for most of my work day.  I’ve developed a quick and easy energetic cleansing method to help remove any negative, or heavy energies that may be clinging to my own aura and energy field.

Negative energies?  What’s that mean?

Even if you don’t buy into the whole metaphysical and paranormal aspect of what I’m talking about, I’m sure you can all relate to these scenarios:

The co-worker who can suck all the life out of the room, just by walking into it; this person makes you cringe, internally at least, as soon you spot him because you know he’s going have something to complain about.  He’ll tell you how a work task went wrong and it’s not his fault, or just how generally terrible his life is.

The acquaintance who always has the disease du jour, and can’t wait to tell you every excruciating detail of her symptom progression.

That other acquaintance that dumps every emotional upheaval on you, cries on your shoulder, and is always in crisis.  But then has no time for you when you need to vent.

Have you ever noticed that after an encounter with one of these people, you suddenly feel less spring in your step?  That you feel, well, drained after being around them?  It’s not your imagination, they are sucking off your energy, and this is what’s making you feel so low.

The good news is, you can help yourself feel better, and you can do this very easily.  All you have to do is take a shower, something I’ll bet you do every day.

No need to stand under one of these, although it does feel amazing.

Really?  That’s all there is to it?

Not entirely.  For those not metaphysically minded, I’d be curious if you tried this experiment, and how it goes for you.  Stand in your running shower and still your mind.  If you need to hold some sort of image in your head, try for a clear running stream, or waves crashing on the beach, or you can just try for soothing blankness.  The idea is to still your mind, and halt the thousand odd thoughts jamming through it, just for a few moments.  If worries about paying the phone bill, or helping the kids with their homework intrude, just sort of gently push them away, and return to that stillness.  Take six deep breaths.  Try and imagine the air, packed full of relaxation, filling your lungs from bottom to top.  Count to four, slowly on each inhale, then exhale out for another count of four and imagine letting go of all your stress and tension.

Six slow breaths, while keeping your mind still and focusing on breathing calm in and stress out.  Does that really work?  Try it, and you tell me.  But if you want some science behind it to satisfy your left brain, then here it is:  Running water produces negative ions; a negative ion is an electrically charged particle, floating around in the air.  Natural settings, beaches, running streams, waterfalls are full to brimming with these negative ions, while indoor and city setting may have levels in just the hundreds or even zero.  Negative ions have been shown, in multiple studies, to have positive effects on human cognition and emotions.  When you breathe in during your shower, you breathe in these negative ions.  Once they hit your bloodstream they trigger the release of serotonin, the feel-good, mood elevating neurotransmitter.  Thank you, WebMD.  Now, you can go buy a fancy, spendy negative ion emitter, or use the free one you already have in your home shower.

An ideal negative ion generator

I’m going to move on to the metaphysical and paranormal aspects of energy cleansing now, so I’ll say goodbye to the strict left-brainers and thanks for stopping by!

A clean energy field leads to a happier, more balanced you!  We all know the energetic vampires of our acquaintance, and if you’re actively engaged in energy work, spiritual healing, mediumistic or other paranormal activity, keeping your aura clear is of paramount importance.  Bits of psychic detritus will be attracted to you and cling, just as you go about your daily life, even when you’re not doing psychic work.  Humans, both living and dead can and do attach lines to your energy field and will drain you.  Many spiritual traditions draw a direct linkage between energy drainage and physical sickness, so it is important to cleanse yourself of these energetic attachments to maintain your overall health.

Removing these attachments requires your focused intention.  It’s not enough to just jump in and rinse off, if you have significant attachments that have burrowed deeply into your aura or physical body then they will need a little boost to get them to release.  The other thing to remember is this; on some level you have given permission for this attachment to form, it could not attach otherwise.  This happens on a conscious as well as unconscious level.  When we share our feelings, when we empathize with another, when we give an ear to a friend, we help shoulder a little of their burden, we lighten their load temporarily, but we are not obligated to bear it indefinitely.  So while you do, on some level, give permission for attachments to form, you can also withdraw that permission, and that is key to energetic cleansing.

Focus your will and attention.

Before I begin my energetic cleanse, I take a moment to ground and center myself, and take the cleansing breaths I described above.  I bring my full attention into my body and aura, and let outside cares drop out of my mind; this moment is wholly for me and my health.  I take the time to reconnect with my body by focusing on every part, from the soles of my feet to the crown of my head; I let my attention ‘look’ at every part.  I also let myself feel every sore spot, ache and pain, relaxing the grip I have held on suppressing these sensations through the day.  I take full ownership of my body; it’s joys and pains.  Then I direct my attention outward to my aura; I’ll even put out my hands to feel it’s gentle curvature as it surrounds me, and feel for any rough spots.

Once I am fully connected to my body and aura, I then state my intention, I use this phrase:  “I completely remove from my being any and all attachments that do not contribute to my highest healing good.”  I hold this intention firmly in my head, and let the water cascade over me completely; ducking under the showerhead is a great idea, but you can also pass your hands over your head and face if you don’t want to get your hair wet.  I visualize the water removing every piece of heavy energy; everywhere the water goes it removes those attachments.  I hold this image, along with my intention for several breaths, imagining a curtain, or veil, travelling down from crown to feet, washing away that heavy energy.  You’ll feel it when that last bit washes away.

Next, if I sensed any gaps in my aura, I’ll seal and smooth those over with a little Reiki.  I like to hold one hand over my heart chakra and the other over the gap while I’m offering the Reiki.  I take a few last moments to visualize all the attachments being carried down the drain by the water, holding my intention of release until they disappear.  By the time I step out, I feel like a new woman!  Little aches and pains are usually swept away and I feel renewed and energized.

Remember these key points:

Hold that intention!  If your attention wanders and you begin to fret about the day you had, or the one still to come, you are not cleansing.  Refocus your attention back to yourself and repeat your intention:  release those attachments!

It may take some practice get the feel of holding your intention and focusing your attention.  Give yourself permission to make mistakes, this is how you learn; just remember to keep trying and it will get easier.

Breathe deeply!  Move that air and circulate those negative ions, get as many into your bloodstream as you can.

Take a moment to really feel yourself free of that heavy energy, notice how much better, how much lighter you feel.  When you step out, clear your mind and ‘check in’ with your body and your aura, feel it completely whole and shining.  Tell yourself this is your body’s natural state!

I find that this exercise, used daily, highly beneficial.  My psychic senses are clearer and my stress levels greatly reduced.  If I’ve had a hard day on the job, and just want to turn in to a slug, this cleansing will restore me.  But don’t take it from me, try it yourself; I’d really love to hear how it works for you.  Drop me a note and tell me how you felt before and after.  Try it for a few days, then hold off for a few, and see if you notice a difference.

Waves and beaches are natural energizers

Spirits Are Everywhere

Really

There are spirits all around you.  Your own Guides, your loved ones who have already passed (human and animal by the way) want to be near you and look in on you.  My first dog, a big, shaggy black beast is always near me; he has quite clearly told me he would very much like to come back soon and live with me again.

The city of I live in has a rich history, and many old buildings with layers and layers of stories in their walls.  It is not hard to find a wandering spirit on any given occasion.  It’s been my experience that if they know I can see them, a few common reactions occur.

The Scary Dance

They try to scare me.  If the being is carrying a lot of heavy energy and emotions, the only way he or she knows how to communicate is through anger, hate and fear.  Also, they can often get a reaction out of the living by sending out such heavy vibrations.  If they have enough energy, they may manifest:  a form, moving an object, sounds.  Spirits are sometimes a little like dogs or small children; any attention, even if it’s negative, is reinforcing to them.  It makes sense too.  Heck, if I could see and hear everything that was going on around me, but everyone ignored, or walked through me, I’d probably get annoyed and start throwing things too.

The “How I Died” Movie

Especially if the death was traumatic, they want to tell me about it.  Make that show me.  I’ve been shown being drowned, stabbed, shot, suicide, and being surrounded by family members saying goodbye.

Afterlife Message Service

“Tell my family…”  As much as I would love to pass on every ‘I love you, I miss you, I’m okay’ the reality is often the family isn’t even present on the earth anymore to give a message to.

For those who have passed over, and even for those who haven’t the message is the same:  They’re okay.  They still exist, their personality survives even though the body may be long gone.  And they love you.

Time To Go Home

What I can do for spirits is offer to help them cross the Veil.

There’s lots and lots of ways to conceptualize this, ‘going into the light,’ ‘crossing over,’ etc.  Basically it’s when a spirit that is bound to the earth releases that binding and steps into the next realm, the true home of our spirit.

Spirits that are stuck here on Earth cannot move on for any number of reasons, traumatic death, unfinished business, an inability to let go of life, the list goes on and on and on.  It includes the ties of loved ones among the living who refuse to release the one who has passed on.

Not all of them want to go.  Some are fully aware that they’re dead, that home waits on the other side, but they want to stay attached for a time.

Crossing the Veil releases that binding; it is always by the being’s own free choice.  I don’t ‘make’ a spirit cross; I only point the way, although sometimes that process of pointing and explaining can get quite involved.  My Guides assist; they help by calling in the earthbound spirit’s own Guides and loved ones who show the bound spirit the way home.

Some of the most wonderful crossings I’ve ever seen are those of the darkest entities I’ve encountered.  These beings are filled with pain, fear and hopelessness and frequently project quite intense feelings of hate or anger.  When they cross the Veil, they release all of that heaviness and become once again their true, light selves.  It’s almost like an explosion of love and joy; the whole energy of the room changes, going from dark, prickly and uncomfortable to almost unbearably beautiful.

All photos are taken by and under copyright to ME!  Please ask permission before use.  Thank you!

Helping Spirits Get Home

Sunny's favorite place

I’ve always been in contact with ‘the other side.’  To varying degrees, true, but the ability to perceive it has always been there.  I had never heard the term ‘psychopomp’ until just a few years ago, while taking my Reiki II class.  It was then that I also found out that I am a psychopomp, although I can’t say I was surprised.  Every place I’ve lived, and most of my workplaces have had resident spirits, and during my time there, that resident spirit has moved on.

Ghosts like me; several have told me they’re ‘drawn to’ me.  My friend and teacher explained it like this:  being a psychopomp means there’s something in my energy signature, or aura, that is a big bright shiny beacon to spirits.  I’m easy for them to ‘see’ both earthbound spirits, and those on ‘the other side.’  I work very closely with my Guides, who have taught me how to use this shininess to help those who are stuck here.

I’d never been to my friend’s apartment, and as soon as I walked in my skin started to crawl.  It’s a tactile sensation that brushes across my shoulders and arms, even my face; depending on the spirit’s energy this can be pleasant, painful, ticklish…it varies.  This time, it felt prickly, warm and angry.  My shoulders tensed and I felt a tingling line trace up and down my neck.  This place did not have a happy feel.

“How long have you lived here?”  I’m sure my tone came out sarcastic and critical, because I was thinking she’d been there too long already, an emotion that was coming through from the spirits I was sensing.  We’d already talked about paranormal subjects, and I knew she was open to them so I didn’t hesitate.

“You know there’s at least one spirit here, right now?  Have you been having any problems?”  She was taken aback by my directness,  “Well, yes!”  She sounded both relieved and exasperated.  I asked if I could walk around and get a feel for the place.  The bedroom was a windowless corner in the basement apartment, and the fulminating presence made the room even darker.  Passing my hand in front of the doorway was like touching a wind made of deep anger.  Oh, she is pissed, I thought.  Out loud though, I told my friend,  “It’s in here, she’s in here.”  Still standing in the living room my friend only nodded and then told me, “I can’t sleep in that room, I can’t hardly stand to be in it, it just gives me the creeps!”

“Really?”  But I knew she was telling the truth, the bed was piled with clothes and boxes.  “So, you sleep, where?”  I asked.  “The couch.”  She waved her arms at the large, comfy looking black leather loungers.   “Look, we’ve gotta go, or we’re going to be late.”  The spirits were amping up their energy in response to my psychic poking around, and neither one was happy.  It spilled over onto my friend and she was anxious for us to get out.  It was a few weeks later that she asked me to come over and see if I could do anything.

There were two spirits sharing the apartment with my friend, and they were not getting along at all.  One was attached to my friend, something she addressed in the ensuing weeks, but the other was attached to the residence.  This resident spirit was a woman in her 40’s who showed me images of the sun, and beaches, when she finally calmed down.

But right now, these two were like feuding roommates, and my friend was caught in the middle.  She was practically vibrating in response to the tension being generated between the two spirits.  The spirit attached to my friend was primarily concerned that I would try to separate him from my friend; he was very protective.  I reassured him and asked him to move back and away, then I turned to the other one; at that time all I could determine was that the spirit was female.

She was in the doorway of the bedroom, wailing and complaining.  “This is my place!  He can’t push me around like that!  He is all over, telling me what to do, and this is my place!  My room!  I can’t even keep him out of my room!”  I let her go on for a few minutes, tried to get her to calm down and couldn’t.  She did not want to listen, just wanted to make everyone else around her pay for her misery.  So I separated them.

I made it clear that either could chose to move on at any time, I showed them the veil and invited them to cross.  But when both quite rudely refused, I told the woman,  “You cannot continue to fight, here, and upset my friend.  So for now, go to your room and stay there.”  My friend had some sea salt, so I sprinkled a line across the doorway to the bedroom and told the woman.  “Stay in there, or cross the veil.  It’s your choice, but stop fighting with the other guy.”  I was equally firm with the male spirit, he could move on, or remain near my friend, but he could no longer antagonize the female spirit.  The sea salt would keep him away from her as much as it would keep her in.

I knew though, it was only a temporary fix, and that the salt wouldn’t hold them forever.  I didn’t intend for it to.  I told my friend I’d come back soon and we’d all have a longer chat.  Sure enough, she reported a few quiet nights.  When things started back up, they weren’t quite as angry, but both were definitely still present and generating intense emotions.

I went back, and walked into my friend’s unused bedroom.

“You were really rude!”  The woman, who called herself Sunny, complained as soon as I sat down on the bed.  I’m not sure if Sunny was really her name, or just her favorite thing, because a big, warm sun always accompanied images of her.  “You threw salt at me!  Rude!”  She was right.  I don’t like pushing spirits around, but I’d been short on time; they’re still people and deserve to be treated with respect.  I focused on slowing down and giving Sunny my full attention.  “You weren’t exactly listening to me, or helping the situation, but you’re right, it was rude and I am sorry.  I really am here to help.”  I told her, while I looked around my friend’s bedroom, it was dark, and the air felt tight and hard to breathe.  Sunny’s presence swirled around me, and my skin and face tingled.  She was angry still, but at least now she was willing to talk.

“Help, how?  Why?  I was happy, lying on the beach…” Sunny filled my head with warm golden days, and I saw her as she last remembered herself.  She had curling gold hair shot with grey, and the slightly leathery, perma-tanned skin of a woman who has spent a lot of time in the sun.  She saw herself lying on a towel, gazing out across the water; an older, but still trim bikini-clad body lay with toes pointing toward the shore.  I heard the music she was listening to; a crackly radio played the Beach Boys, Led Zepplin and Boston, and I felt the heat of the sun as it hung low in the sky, sinking into the west.  Sunny spoke again.  “Then she moved in, and he’s here, and everything’s gone to shit!  Why’d he have to harsh my high?  I just want to lay here in the sun.”  She drifted a little, losing herself in her memories of life.

I reminded Sunny that she was dead, and she snapped back.  “Yeah, I know!  This is it, I’m stuck here in this apartment.”  She was bound to this place for some reason, and so spent her time lost in her happier memories, until jarred out of them.  She was constantly disturbed by my friend’s male spirit, and so made her displeasure well known, because it kept her from her dreams of life and the beach.

“You do not have to stay here, Sunny.  You can move on, go home.”  Sunny just scoffed.  “What, go to heaven?”  She rolled her eyes.  “Right!  Just leave me alone, let me go back to the beach.”  She drifted around the room, retreated into the back of the closet and sulked.

Sometimes, they need to be shown; they don’t know there is a home to go to.  I asked my Guides to bring the veil in closer.  But where is home?  What is the veil?  I don’t know, really I don’t.  They are convenient terms and labels I use to describe places and states that are difficult to put into words.  As I have experienced it, ‘home’ is the place where we reconnect with Spirit, capital ‘S’ Spirit, the Big One.  Heaven, Valhalla, ‘the other side’, ‘into the light’ take your pick, I use ‘going home.’  The veil is what separates ‘home’ from ‘here.’  I see it as a large, shimmery wall that feels soft, like fur or cashmere and kind of tingles when I touch it.  When I ask my Guides to bring the veil in closer it makes the veil more apparent.  I don’t know what the physics of it might be, but it makes the veil and what’s beyond it more discernible, to me and to the spirit I’m talking with.

When the veil appeared, Sunny focused her attention on it.  “What is that?”  Her emotions were a blend of fear and awe.  It was beautiful, but she didn’t know what to expect from it.  I did my best to show her, that she could cross the veil, go home, and she would no longer be stuck here.  “You can lay on the beach forever if you want, and never be disturbed again.”  I told her.  She only scoffed, and retreated further into the closet, more fearful now than interested in the veil.  She turned her attention away from me, sinking back into her summer dreams.  I asked my Guides to see if they could find any of Sunny’s loved ones who were in spirit, or her Guides, and reconnect them with Sunny.  At that time, they could not, she’d been disconnected and lost in her memories for so long my Guides could not immediately locate Sunny’s Guides.

“Here’s the deal Sunny, you can do whatever you want.  Go home, or stay in this closet, it’s your choice.  Take your time to think about it, and I’ll have a chat with the male spirit, and ask him to leave you alone.  You’ve been here so long, you don’t know if you want to move along, that’s okay.  If you change your mind about crossing the veil, I’d like to offer you something to make it easier for you to find.”

In Reiki II, I learned an energy medicine technique called the Bridge of Light.  This is an energetic bridge between the earth plane and home, made using Reiki.  I then ask my Guides to bring any of the spirit’s loved ones or Guides to the Bridge, to help when the spirit decides to cross.  I offered the Bridge of Light to Sunny; she looked at it with suspicious curiosity.  “You can cross at any time, or never.  But, please, for my friend’s sake, tone down the heavy, scary vibes.  I’ll ask the male spirit to leave you alone, tell him you don’t mean any harm.”  I stood, and brushed at my arms and legs, sweeping away clinging energies.  “Are we good, Sunny?”  She turned her back on me, but nodded in assent.  Her emotions were quieter now; less angry, more speculative.  She sank again into her own thoughts, fading from my view, and the mood in the room lifted.  Even though I’d left the lights off, it suddenly seemed brighter in there.

I checked in with my friend, and Sunny a few days later.  My friend was happier because her invisible roommates were no longer fighting, and Sunny was more curious about the Bridge, but still wary.  I was pleasantly surprised then when a week later Sunny came and visited me.  She’d decided to cross the veil and had come to say thank you, and goodbye, disappearing into a dark gold sunset.

I waited a few weeks, and then asked my friend how things were going at her apartment.  “Quiet, it’s been amazingly quiet.  I’ve been very happy!”  There was no more emotional turmoil from her spirit roommates, and she could no longer feel Sunny’s presence.  The last thing she said was the best news I could have heard.  “I’ve been sleeping in my bed for the last two weeks!”  She declared happily.

 

All images are taken by and under copyright to ME!  Please ask permission before use.  Thank you!

Friends In Unexpected Places

I’ve worked in a few hospitals, and as you might imagine, they are just full of the spirits of the deceased.  People pass suddenly, people pass silently, and people pass into spirit surrounded by their loved ones at the end of life.  Some move on right away, but some stick around for a while.

One night I went off to take my break.  Since all the other break/sleeping spots were full of napping co-workers, I chose an empty room and stretched out on one of the beds.  Not something I normally did, nor something I repeated after this night.

He rose up out of the floor as soon as my head hit the pillow.

“That’s my bed.”  He hissed, crouched at the foot.  His hands reached and clutched at the covers, but he stayed hunched down on the floor.  I could only see half his face, long and grey, with wispy, flyaway hair.  His eyes were incredibly sad.

“That’s my bed.”  He repeated, with more conviction now.  “Get out of my bed.  It’s mine.”  He seemed to be struggling weakly, and with this odd doubling of my vision, I was suddenly seeing two scenes.  The darkened room as it was, with the covers still neatly tucked and pulled tight, and overlaid on that, a vision of a rumpled bed.  With exposed sheets pulled down over the end of the bed, and my hissing friend on the ground, tangled in them.  His legs were so wound up in them that he couldn’t get up.  I tried reasoning with him; it had worked before with other spirits.

“Look, I just want to rest here for a bit.  I won’t bother you, and I’ll be gone soon.”

“No, it’s my bed!”  He was adamant, and now looked petulant.  “I want to get back in it!”

I sighed, and got up, wandering off down the hall.  “Fine, it’s your bed.  I’ll leave it to you.”  I told him.  But as I walked off, he looked frankly puzzled.  A few minutes later I was back in the room, there wasn’t another place to go rest and take my break.  I dragged a chair over to the window so I could prop my feet up.   I slouched down and told the spirit curled on the floor,  “Okay, it’s your bed, but I need to rest and this place is it.  So, I’d appreciate it if you’d be quiet and keep to your bed.  I’m going to nap!”  So help me, he shut up, still with that puzzled look on his face.  The rest of my break passed uneventfully.

I didn’t talk with my co-workers about my encounter in the room at the end of the hall, but one night the discussion of ‘worst death you’ve ever seen’ came up.  Yeah, late night talk brings up some morbid subjects, but I was so new I had nothing to contribute.  Not so my fellow late-nighters.  One described finding a patient on the floor, tangled in bedding.  She pointed and said, “It was in that room at the end of the hall.”  Of course it was.

A few nights later, my new friend found me, as I was trying to nap in one of the break rooms.

“You saw me, you talked with me.  No one does that.”

There would be no sleeping this night; grumpy spirit had turned into chatty Kathy.  He wanted to know how, and he wanted to know why.  He would find me most nights that I worked, even if it was just to pop in and say ‘hi.’  He told me he found talking to me “comforting.”

Several times I told him, “You know you’re dead, right?  You are stuck here in this hospital, and you don’t have to be.  You can go into the light, move on; you can go home.”  He refused.  At one point, I asked him, why not?  Then, he did something completely unexpected.  I was lying down on a couch, and he moved so that he was standing at my head.  Very gently, he placed both his hands on the crown of my head.  It went instantly cold.

“You’re the only light I see.”  He sounded a little sad when he said it.

It was a very odd moment for me.  He wasn’t trying to harm me, he wasn’t trying to do anything at all, but I could sense he’d become fond of me.  In that odd instantaneous communication that sometimes happens between a spirit and myself I saw what he meant.

He couldn’t see the light; he didn’t know which direction was home.  I was the one bright spot in his afterlife because I was the only one who acknowledged his continued existence.  Any other living person ignored him, either willfully or because they just didn’t see him.  I knew then, that it was incredibly lonely for him, and it broke my heart.

“I am not the light you are seeking, I’m just someone who knows you’re still a person and is not afraid to talk with you.”  I told him.  “It is your choice to go, or to stay here, but you do not need to be this lonely and sad.  You can go home, you can go into the light and be with your loved ones again.  But you have to turn and look for it.  Your loved ones will be there to help you find your way.”  We had this discussion a few times over the course of the months I worked there.  He was afraid, initially, to look around.  Being stuck on a hospital floor was boring and lonely, but it was at least an existence, of sorts.  To try and search out the ‘light’ and ‘home’ that I spoke of was an unknown, and scary.

The reasons a person gets stuck on the Earth plane are as varied as human existence.  While it is true that everyone has spirit guides, it is also true that conditions here in the physical realm can cause them to lose sight of you.  Any number of mental or physical conditions (drug abuse, depression, are just a couple I can think of) can make it difficult for those in spirit to find or connect with those they love who are still incarnate here on Earth.  In an ideal world, when a person’s body dies, their guides and loved ones in spirit are right there to help them with the transition.  But, as we all know, death (and life!) situations are not always ‘ideal’ and a spirit becomes Earthbound.

That’s where I come in; as a psychopomp, it’s my ‘job’ to help get the Earthbound unstuck.  Working closely with my guides, once I’ve established contact with a spirit I can reconnect the Earthbound spirit with his or her own guides and loved ones.  The best way I can think of to describe this is, I ‘light them up’ energetically.  This energy goes out like a beacon that draws in helpful spirits and guides.  I should emphasize that this is always at the Earthbound’s choice, and I have some very powerful guides and allies who ensure that everyone plays nice.

My night-shift friend did eventually find his way into the light, he waved happily as he crossed over.  The love and light he projected in thanks was beautiful.

Have you ever feared or dreaded something, only to find once you were on the other side of it, it wasn’t frightening at all?  What used to scare you, that now is dear, or familiar?

 

 

The Science of Spirituality

 

 

The skeptic and the believer; two sides of the same coin.

I listen to Coast to Coast AM.  I was even on the show recently; as a caller on their annual Ghost to Ghost, Halloween show.  I was the last caller of the night, and I told this story about a haunted youth hostel.

To have an encounter with a ghost presupposes the idea that there is life after death.  But is there?  The arguments for and against are many and varied.

Obviously, I stand on the side of belief.  For me, it goes deeper than just a belief though; it’s tied into my being, my experiences are real.  For me.  And really, in the inner landscape of my spirituality, that’s what ultimately matters, right?  Same for you, too, no matter which side you stand upon.

Since I am a big enough fan that I pay their membership fee, I download the podcasts of Coast to Coast and listen at my leisure.  This means I frequently listen to months-old podcasts, immediately followed more current ones.

The guest  on August 7th was Matthew Alper, and he stood on the side of the skeptics.  He said more than once that he did not accept that there was any survival of consciousness past the physical death of the body.  And he quoted a whole slew of scientific experiments and studies.

Spiritual center hasn't made onto the map yet...

I did find the premise of his book interesting, that we as humans are hard-wired to have a sense of spirituality, that there is a ‘spiritual center’ to the human brain, much as there is a language, or vision center.  I am intrigued enough by his position to want to read all he has to say about it.  Because I find it perfectly intriguing that he would find overwhelming evidence for a spiritual center.  I don’t agree with his presumed mechanism, but I do agree that we have a center in our brain, a definite physical thing.  We differ in that I believe it is there to sense the spiritual realm.

Today, I’ve been listening to a show featuring Dr. Vernon Neppe and Dr. Edward Close,  from November 2.  They are the authors of Reality Begins With Consciousness.

They also have very convincing, scientific articles, studies and research that support their point of view.  Which is, briefly, that consciousness exists separate of our physical bodies, and survives physical death.  Interestingly, in both shows, the guests used temporal lobe seizures as a point in favor of their arguments.  Yeah, it was funny to me too.

Obviously, I found the good doctors’ views more palatable, since they also track with mine.  But, in all fairness I have not read either of the books, my insights come from listening to how the guests presented themselves on the air, and reading their websites.  Both books are on my reading list, now.

But it started me considering; what a funny animal the human is, that we can look at ‘scientific evidence’ from two such diametrically opposite viewpoints and each be convinced that the ‘science’ supports our own worldview.

Is it a lack of experience with spiritual, or I will say, numinous matters that convinces the skeptic?  Or is it perhaps an overabundance of otherworldly encounters that drives another to eschew all contact, denying the experience of their own senses?  In other words, ‘locking it away.’  Each can have their own inner reasons for claiming there is no life after death.

Conversely, where does the believer get his faith?  What convinces a psychic that it’s more than ‘just her imagination?’

It’s all in the individual’s perception that the distinction lies.  Each one of us perceives the world just a little bit differently than the next.  Haven’t we all seen examples of people with a narrow focus?  Or with a more widely encompassing viewpoint?  The challenge to us as humans is to expand our awareness, to try and see things from another’s perspective, to engage our empathy and see the world from outside ourselves.  It’s in making that step, that forward motion to understand another that we work towards a better world.

No matter which side of the spiritual fence you stand on, I think we can all agree to that, right?

So what do you think?  What has convinced you?

Is It A Ghost?

I’ve run into two types of paranormal activity associated with the spirits of humans who’ve died.  First, there are the earthbound spirits I’ve been detailing so far; these are beings who cling to life, and the earth, and have the intellect to interact with those of us still incarnate.  These are what we usually think of as ghosts.  However, not all apparitions are necessarily aware of us humans on the Earth plane or trying to communicate with us.  Some of them may not even see us or react to our presence, but go about their actions as if we were the ones not there.

Commonly known as residuals, these are powerful emotional leftovers of events or trauma that took place in a particular locale.  Residuals replay over and over a scene that is seemingly ignorant of current surroundings.  For example a phantom stagecoach is sometimes seen crossing the 57 freeway in Southern California.

 

I encountered a residual haunting when I walked through two men fighting.  I was visiting a county fair that had an old farmhouse on its grounds.  I didn’t have any of the typical sensations of a nearby spirit.  The day was bright and sunny and my friend and I were having fun poking around the old house.

 

We came into a large open room, a gathering space not a bedroom or kitchen.  There was no furniture, only windows, a fireplace and a chandelier.  I walked into the center of the floor to peer up and get a closer look at the dangling lamp.  Between one moment and the next several things happened at once.  I became very nauseated, dizzy and lightheaded.  I couldn’t see my friend but two men stood facing off against each other.  It was as if I was between them but they couldn’t see me.  They were arguing.  I could hear the yelling but couldn’t understand their words.  They were close to each other, pushing and then grappling.  Each man carried a gun and they fired almost simultaneously.

The cramping and nausea had me nearly doubling over and I really was feeling like I was going to faint.  I called my friend over and she had to help me out of the house.  Once outside, the nausea evaporated along with all my other symptoms, and never returned.

“That was weird.”  She looked at me, concerned and I told her what I’d seen and felt.  We both shivered not knowing exactly what had happened.  We continued to explore the fair but stayed far away from the old farmhouse.

What sort of ghosts have you encountered?  Was it a true haunt or a residual?

What’s your scariest paranormal experience?

 

Werewolves? What’s Not to Love?

At first glance, why would anyone want to be a werewolf?  Does anyone really want to be able to change their shape, to have to hunt and kill?  Common legends do not paint them as very congenial creatures, and how comfortable can it be to grow hair and have to run around on all fours?  How many hands up out there?  Ok, mine’s one of them.  Guilty!  But I’ve always found shape-shifting endlessly fascinating.

The origins of the werewolf legend trace back to the ancient world.  The Epic of Gilgamesh, out of Sumeria, relates how the hero refused to knock boots with the Goddess Ishtar, because she’d turned a former lover into a wolf.  From Greece we have Lycaon, King of Arcadia.  The basic tale has Lycaon killing his son, cooking him and offering him up for dinner to Zeus, King of the Gods.  Zeus is understandably angered by his host’s menu choice and transforms King Lycaon into a wolf in punishment. I guess the lesson from this is…don’t piss off a deity!  It’s from the King of Arcadia that we get the word lycanthropy.

The wolf has had a bad reputation for a very long time.  In early European cultures the wolf was a dangerous enemy, a threat to livestock and humans both.  Not surprising that someone who did damage to the community would be characterized as a wolf.  Werewolf legends abound throughout Europe of men changing into wolves and terrorizing the countryside.  Retrospective analyses have offered us a multitude of explanations for this creature, it’s motives and behaviors; ergotism, hypertrichosis, porphyria have all been suggested.  Superstition and suspected witchcraft have also contributed.  It’s been suggested that the werewolf legend sprang up to explain the actions of serial killers; a supernatural cause to a horrific act would have made sense to religiously bound ideals of the Middle Ages.

How did we make the transition then, from serial killer to superhero?  Today, we have Jacob Black, Richard Zeeman and Alcede Herveaux to name just a few.  Hundreds of thousands of women now lust for these guys, and yeah, I’m one of them!  The literal and virtual bookshelves are crammed with paranormal romance featuring everyone’s favorite shapechanger.  Now, they’re devastatingly attractive, powerful men (or women!) who are as irresistible to us as to the heroine (or hero!) of the story.

Obviously, numerous factors have contributed to this change, but as our understanding of wolves and their environment has grown, so has our love affair with the werewolf.  It’s only fairly recently that human perception of the wolf has turned.  With a better understanding of wolf behavior that has come from research, we now know that, instead of being slavering mindless killers, the wolf is in fact a dedicated family animal.  Wolves are loyal, and live in loving family groupings.  They act together as a team, cooperating to provide food and protection for their pack.  Pack dynamics can be harsh, involving growling, lunging and slashing teeth, but looking closely at these interactions shows that these fierce displays are usually just that, display.  Physical conflict is typically brief, and injuries rare.  More commonly, pack members are physically affectionate with each other, offering grooming, cuddling and playful behaviors to the members of their pack.   Yes, they do kill other animals, but for food, not excessively or wastefully.  They do not kill solely for the joy of killing.  Seems to me humans could do a little more modeling of their own behavior after the wolf’s.

The modern werewolf  has grown to fill a much-loved niche in our world.  Striding confidently out from the fearful fringes of superstition, the werewolf has gone from terror-inducing villain to mainstream hero.  But, the modern shapeshifter has also allowed us to reconnect with an often-forgotten part of ourselves, the part that is wild and animalistic.  In our frenetic, technology-driven world, we often lose sight of the fact that we are natural creatures.  A part of us mourns a little when we are cut off utterly from the earth that sustains us and seeks to reconnect with it.  And it’s a little bit like rediscovering the divine when you do find it.

The werewolf walks in both worlds, the human and the natural, giving us that outlet, that connection.

I cast the werewolf into the protagonist’s role in my novel, Becoming Pack, to show that humans are inextricably bound to the natural world, and our actions have consequences.  We need this bond, to remind ourselves that we are not alone, we do not exist in a vacuum.  We require the wild, open spaces and the animals that live there.  Evidence mounts on evidence that each ecosystem is linked to the other, what affects one affects the next and damage to one eventually harms all.

The wolf is an icon of how man can affect the natural world.  In North America, the wolf was the object of a sustained program of eradication, and they nearly succeeded.  It wasn’t until 1973 that the gray and red wolves received federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.  Wolf reintroduction programs began in 1995 in Idaho/Yellowstone.  Today, wolf populations are growing, and their resurgence has helped restore their native habitats.

I  have a very close bond to wolves; I used to work with them, well, two to be specific.  In Becoming Pack, I’ve tried to bring you into the world of the wolf, and what it would feel like to be able to experience the world through the senses of another.  Ultimately, that’s what the werewolf protagonist does for us, gives us a glimpse of the natural world through the eyes of one immersed in it.

Who is your favorite werewolf?  What’s your fascination with the werewolf mythos?  Leave me a comment and tell me about your love of lycanthropy!

What Proof Do You Have?

I don’t think proof of the afterlife or the survival of our spirit will ever come at the hands of current science.  The scientific method of inquiry is not suited to studying matters of the soul.  It will by its very nature and a person’s own perceptions, culture and beliefs alter accordingly.

Instead proof, for me, comes in the form of serendipitous connections between events.

One of my last retail jobs kept me working until ten or eleven at night.  My homeward trip took me past the shores of a small lake; a restaurant, a public beach and private homes circled this little piece of water.  It was a peaceful drive because no motorized vessels were allowed and at night the moon and stars reflected in the black water.  I loved to drive past slowly, savoring the gorgeous sight.  Usually I was the only one on the road at that time.

He just appeared one night in the late fall/early winter.  Like Steve the jumper this spirit was soaking wet, shivering and lost.  There was such confusion and pain on his face.  He didn’t appear every night and didn’t catch on right away that I could see him.  He’d just stand in the gravel and peer desperately up and down the street.

The section of road where I saw the young man wasn’t a good area to try and stop my vehicle and it wasn’t a place I wanted to park and walk back through late at night, so my best option was to drive really slow (late, no one on the road, hey it worked) and try to flag him down.  It took a few nights before he picked up on my attention but once he did he was there every time I drove by.

“Please!”  At first that was all I could get from him, then it became “Please help me!”  He didn’t understand why he couldn’t get away from the shoreline.  He didn’t understand why he was just standing there or why I wouldn’t stop and give him a ride home.

“Do you remember the last thing you were doing?”  I asked him.

Images of swimming, laughing and joking with friends that turned to unease, then fear, then panic as he lost them in the dark.  Thrashing, increasing cold, a spreading heaviness and sinking away from a dimly seen surface along with incredible sadness all came through from this spirit standing at the road’s edge.

“I need to go home!  Can you take me home?”  It became his nightly plea.

I didn’t know his name but I did know how to help him get home; I told him he could ‘go into the light.’  Actually, I sent it as a visual image since lengthy explanations as I passed him were difficult.  Most of our communications were through images or emotions, although I tend to write them out as verbal sentences for clarity.

He refused.  This was a surprise because it was one of the first times a spirit had not wanted to cross the Veil.

“No, home, my house!  My family needs me.”  He clearly communicated that he needed to be with his family.  Which confused me, as the months went by, how could his family not know what happened?  It was a small lake, he went swimming with friends and his fate seemed obvious.

So it went, through the long winter.  In the snow, in the rain, in the breathtakingly clear cold he was there at the water’s edge.  Once he understood he was dead and not just weirdly unable to leave the lake his confusion left him but the sadness remained.  He’d glumly lift his hand as I passed; we ‘spoke’ less and less.

Each time I pointed and said, “You can go into the light whenever you want” his refusal was stubborn.

In the spring, his body floated to the surface of the lake and was recovered.  The local news covered it briefly; a young man went swimming last year and never made it out of the lake.  Because of the cold, his body sank and didn’t rise until the warming waters brought it back up.

The next time I saw him, he was glowing and for the first time I saw him smile.  His family had him back and he felt free to cross the Veil at last.

“Thanks for talking to me.”  He was grateful I’d taken the time to acknowledge him in his loneliness and confusion.

His farewell wave was joyful as he disappeared, freed from the bindings holding him to the earth.

Trip to Haunted England

My ability to sense other beings jumped dramatically in 2001; that November I fell and suffered a traumatic brain injury on the job.  It was life changing on a number of levels.  I was off work for more than a month and on light duty for six months, leaving me with plenty of time to re-evaluate my professional and personal life.  The upshot of all my soul-searching led me to quit my job and move away to totally change career paths in less than a year.

The first inkling I had that something was different came in September 2002 on a family trip to the U.K.  After a previous trip to England, I often told friends it was the most haunted place I’d ever been.  I was looking forward to more ghostly encounters on this second trip.

I was amply rewarded.  Our first lodging, in Edinburgh, was a bed and breakfast situated at the very top of what had once been a townhouse.  The rooms were cramped and had been the servant’s quarters in other times.   A young maidservant as well as a boy and a girl put in several appearances with waving curtains, knocks and footsteps, childish giggles and the sound of a ball bouncing.  A few times the little girl whispered, “Will you come and play with me?”

From there we moved south to London and used it as a base to roam about southern England, staying in a small apartment.  We took ghost tours, more on those later.

I can only use one word to describe the Tower of London; overwhelming.

Even the apartment we stayed in was haunted.

My skin started tingling as soon as I walked into the apartment and the woman who still resided there made her presence known that night.  In the bathroom, blithely brushing my teeth and planning the next day’s events I felt the skin tingle and hair-raising tactile sensations of a spirit presence nearby.  The tub and shower behind me was clearly reflected in the mirror over the sink and she was standing in it, glaring at me.  She was all grey, like she was in a black and white photograph, dark-haired but colorless.  A dark smoky fog billowed in the shower like cold steam, surrounding her.

“I don’t want you here.”

Now, I’d talked to some ghosts in my time and wasn’t really afraid of her, but she was ferociously unhappy with us being in her space and was working hard to project all sorts of heavy emotions.  Anger, bitterness, jealousy and more just sort of boiled off her.  I closed my eyes, which really didn’t stop the vision of her, or her narrowed, glaring stare and held my ground.

“I’m sorry about that.  But we are going to stay here.  We’ll try and be respectful of you.”

“I don’t want you here.  I want you to leave.”  She was getting more insistent and the energies in the bathroom were getting more prickly.  I felt the urge to run, like I was being prodded in my fear center with a thorny stick.  I was strongly reminded of being chased down the stairs as a kid.  Somehow I didn’t think this woman was playing, she had my childhood friend beat in the malevolence department.

I gritted my teeth and fought against the emotions sweeping over me that screamed ‘RUN!  Get OUT!’

“I’m sorry.”  I repeated.  “But, you’ll just have to resign yourself.  We’ll try not to bother you.”

“Just you being here bothers me.”  She flung a wave of emotions at me then.  Jealousy, that I was alive and she was dead.  Hate, too was mixed in there.  “I just want to be left alone.”  But the deep loneliness that accompanied this statement made it a lie.  She radiated pain and heartbreak.

“I don’t want ANYONE here.  GO!”  Now she was shouting at me, and I got the sense I wasn’t the first she’d yelled at.  But I was the first to react by talking back to her.

Well, I was done and ready to go to bed.  She shot these dagger looks at me as I sauntered out that hit like dull psychic darts.

After a few more encounters with her unpleasant emanations I tried reasoning with her.

“Look, we’re gone most of the day and some of the nights.  We only eat and sleep here, so it’s yours most of the time.  We don’t watch much TV and we don’t make a lot of noise so, would you kindly tone down your angry vibes?”  She was quiet for a while then and stayed out of the shower when I was using it.  I only felt mild glares now and then in the bathroom so it seemed she’d taken what I said under consideration.

Until one night I decided to soak in the tub for a bit.  She took that opportunity to show me how she died.  It wasn’t pretty.

Her husband had been cheating on her, lying to her.  She was jealous and decided to ‘show him’ by slitting her wrists and bleeding out in the tub.  My vision wavered with the billowing steam and I saw her body in the water instead of my own.  Rounder, plumper with saggy breasts and two long gashes running up fleshy forearms, filling the tub with red.

Deep down though, she didn’t really want to die.

She wanted her husband to love her again.  When he came home she was already gone and so she blamed him twice; for cheating on her and failing to save her.  She showed me how he just stood in the doorway, saying her name over and over.  Stella.

“It was all his fault.  All his fault.”  She whispered.  She wasn’t sounding quite so angry, but it and all her other heavy emotions were still there.

After that, all I could feel for her was pity and nothing she did was frightening.  She soon saw that her scary act wasn’t having its intended effect on me.  None of which stopped her from trying, or pacing the hall at night.  I did my best to soothe her and tried to talk her into ‘going into the light’  but she would have none of it.

The day before we were to leave, the subject came up between my sister-in-law and I.  She admitted to sensing a female in the apartment.  We both looked at mom who only said.

“I thought it was you getting up in the middle of the night.  I could see a shadow walking up and down the hall.  I called your name but you never answered.”

Prior to 2001 I wasn’t always able to put a face, personality or sometimes even gender on the spirits I sensed, frequently it was just a sensation on my skin, a half-heard whisper, a flash of emotion.  Visions of the spirit were typically brief and I often questioned their veracity.  This trip was notably different.  I heard and sensed what the spirits was saying more readily.  Visions were clear and now the dead frequently used sentences when talking.  I was less doubtful of what I was seeing and experiencing and it was easier to distinguish between a separate entity and my own imagination.

Which at the time, I thought was really cool.  It still is.  When I got home, my new sensitivities did not fade and two years later I learned the term psychopomp.

A Psycho What?

 

Psychopomps deal with the dead.  With death.

Dying.

Whether we want to admit it or not, each of us is fascinated with death.  Death touches us all.  Whether it’s the horror of our younger self upon discovering our first expired little gold fishy or the screaming, tearing, aching loss of a beloved.  The kind of loss that makes you long for death too.  Yeah, you know that one, don’t you?

Some of us are obsessed with our own death:  denying, avoiding it, welcoming it, and embracing it.

Religions of the world comfort or terrorize us with their versions of the afterlife.  Teenagers are constantly on the brink of expiring, as in:

“But if you don’t let me go to the mall with my friends I’ll just die!”

At some point, everyone has (or will) truly wanted to die.

Clinically, death is defined as the permanent cessation of all vital bodily functions.  Thank you MedicineNet.com.

Does that mean we just stop, cease to exist?  Is it truly just like flicking the proverbial light switch?  ON:  you’re there.  OFF:  blankness, nothingness.  If all you’re considering is the physical body, then the answer is yes.

But what about that vital part that is you; the part that dreams and thinks, talks and loves?  Your mind, your personality, your soul?  According to all the spirits I’ve spoken with, physical death of the body is only one transition of many.

I’ve been in ICU’s; I’ve seen death firsthand.  I’ve held my beloved animal companions as the pink juice entered their veins and eased their final pains.  I’ve also killed animals to make food.

I’ve watched spirits cross the veil and shine brighter than the sun with the joy of finally going home.  When they turn back to smile and wave at you in thanks, it feels like being swept up in a loving, grateful hug and the very atmosphere sparkles and vibrates.

I can tell you this; that vital spark that is you, your essence, your soul, is eternal.  The part that is ‘you’ will continue to exist when the body that currently carries it is nothing but drifting dust motes.

In that sense, we do not die.  We only use a body for a while to experience the physical plane.

Think of a body like a car.  Maybe you’ve a pretty good one right now; sweet, fast and oh so pretty to play with.  But as the years go by things break down and that glossy paint job starts to oxidize.  Eventually, you’re going to want to trade it in for another, maybe an SUV this time instead of sports car.  Before you know it, you’ve forgotten all about that old junker and are busy playing in your shiny new SUV.

Yes, I mean reincarnation.

What about god, heaven, hell or the Bible, Koran or Torah?  Of the three, I’ve only completely read the first and someday I’m sure I’ll go into my opinions and experiences with religion.  Right now though, I’ll say; religion is a great comfort and spiritual fulfillment for many and I fully respect that.  So if Jesus and his camp, or Mohammed speak to you and satisfy you, then rock on!  I celebrate with you!

Are you Buddhist?  Do you resonate with Native American beliefs?

Everyone should experience the numinous.  Really, everyone.  The world would be a better place if all humans would take the time to allow the divine to shine in their soul.  It is our birthright.  The instant that light illuminates you, it changes you.

To know the spark of the divine within you makes it nearly impossible to look at another human being as anything other than your brother or sister.  It  gives you the compassion to look on other beings and see past their negative actions to the core divinity we all possess.

Psychopomp, from the Greek psychopompos literally means ‘guide of souls.’  A psychopomp is one who guides spirits to the afterlife, whatever that might be for the spirit.  Psychopomps can be non-bodied, purely spiritual entities or flesh and blood physical creatures.  Like me.

I didn’t know I was a psychopomp until a few years ago, had never heard the term, even though seeing and talking to ghosts became quite common.  I did notice though, where I had regular contact with a resident spirit, they would eventually ‘move on’ and I would no longer be able to sense the being.

My old lady friend in my parent’s house moved on sometime in my early twenties.

What makes me a psychopomp?  My friend and teacher says it’s in my energy signature, it’s easier for disembodied beings to ‘see’ me.  I’m sort of like a lit-up sign in the astral plane.

Once they find me, I point them toward the veil and call their loved ones on the other side to come and help them cross.

It really is very cool.

I get asked ‘aren’t you afraid?’ a lot.  It’s true from time to time I encounter beings who are doing their best to be big and scary, but typically my answer is, no.  Ghosts, spirits are still people, still related to me on the most fundamental level.  The beings that I help cross are often themselves scared or frustrated, lonely or confused.  It’s a joyful and beautiful thing to watch that fear and confusion drop away, revealing their true self as they cross.